Book Review: Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology: Issue V

A unique collection of hauntingly engaging and imaginative stories

 

In addition to being entertaining, speculative fiction short stories can be an excellent way to process real life personal and societal issues through the prism of the fantastic. Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology: Issue V is an anthology of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror short stories, all by African writers. The collection, edited by Somto Ihezue and Olivia Kidula, varies from historical to contemporary, and includes a range of subtle nods or harshly direct commentary on society, religion, and politics. There are also thoughtful philosophical explorations, as well as straight, terrifying, wild adventures. All of stories are imaginative but also beautifully written and hauntingly engaging, incorporating elements of African culture, history, and spirituality.

At times, some of the selections raise an intriguing concept but then end abruptly, leaving the resolution to the reader’s imagination. Other stories dig deeply into complex situations offering interesting answers to philosophical questions. A standout in the collection is Kevin Rigathi’s twisty “If Memory Serves,” a story of science gone wrong in the commoditization of memory and culture. In this tale, a well-meaning scientist creates a way to extract traumatic memories from people but the result is not what he or society expects. In the vibe of the tv show Severance, the story explores the way good and bad memories shape our authentic selves and our defensive instincts. And it explores the way personal experiences can be exploited and cultures appropriated for dangerous purposes. “If Memory Serves” is an ideal companion piece to another story in the collection, the similarly haunting “The Market of Memories” by Azara Tswanya. “The Market of Memories” is the personal tale of a financially struggling woman who sells her memory of a beloved friend in exchange for money to feed her family. While wealthy people gorge on fetishized memories, the poor in her community lose more and more of themselves and their culture. 

That story is one of several that explore larger themes of colonization and cultural exploitation. “The Clans” by Tonny Ogwa is a tale of ancient clans blessed with superpowers from a powerful deity, however the arrival and ongoing influence of a European priest interferes with their powers and leads to unrest. For a more modern take on a similar theme, there is the uncomfortably relatable story “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” by Shingai Kagund. In this haunting story a young girl learns a disturbing secret about those in power and ponders this truth as she grows up to be a journalist and becomes exhausted by reporting on the never-ending violence and exploitation in our society. 

Some stories are more nihilistic such as Yvette Lisa Ndlovu’s “Dinosaurs Once Lived Here” which offers a sharp, cynical overview of the end of Earth. Among the more hopeful stories is one of my favorites in the collection, “Ash Baby” by Andrew Dkalira which offers a clever reimagining of the Biblical story of Job but, in this version, things are not as they seem. Another tragic but hopeful tale is Rutendo Chidzodzo’s “I’m Home,” a brief, second person narrative of a girl stolen by water spirits and the mother who grieves silently and prays for her return. 

The opening story in the anthology is “The Sirangori Fey Market” by Ephraim N. Orji. The story follows a woman who enters a forbidden marketplace filled with dangerous magical creatures as she seeks both answers and revenge for the death of a child. In another of my favorite tales, "Something Cruel" by Gabrielle Emem Harry, a trio of cynical but professional spiritual enforcers compete with each other to exact punishments on humans and each other as part of their obligations. The prose in this tale is smooth and inviting although the ending of this magical story is, more or less, left to the readers imagination. 

On the philosophical side, “Mr. Original Swag” by Victor Forna is told in the form of an interview that we can only hear one side of. Through the conversations we have a parable on the seductive nature of evil and in particular, the way it preys on the poor and vulnerable. At the other end of the spectrum is the very metaphysical “Commensalism, or the Labyrinth’s Vessels” by Albert Nkereuwem. As people look around at the many bad things in our world, some question why an all-powerful deity wouldn’t just stop humans from hurting each other and stop death, exploitation, environmental toxins and diseases. Wouldn’t it be better to just control humanity’s toxic behavior so that the earth and everyone in it is safe? This story offers a thoughtful vision of what it might look like if human beings no longer had free will to make bad choices and were instead controlled in a Borg-style hive mind. The effect is clever, poignant, and full of irony. The collection also includes Alex Tamei’s post-apocalyptic “A Song of Ruin,” Lucille Sambo’s alien adventure “Scales and Arabesques,” Matseliso Motsoane’s quirky “Baby Potion,” and Khaya Maseko’s time-distortion tale, “Acceptance.”

The final story in the collection, “Why Donkeys Have 44 Teeth” by Peter Nena, is an example of intriguing narrative pacing. The tale starts out creepily and slowly as a little boy ponders an odd dream about a talking donkey. But the story picks up speed as a horrific murder mystery and more dreams accelerate the tale. Then, like wheels on a rollercoaster, the story soon descend into horrific mayhem. This is another tale that leaves the ultimate ending to the reader’s imagination but the accelerating pace will leave you breathless and terrified with its old fashioned horror intensity. 

Despite some tales with abrupt endings, the solid prose and strong African cultural influence makes the book a highly enjoyable read. “Will This Be a Problem” is a uniquely satisfying anthology of fantastical stories. The collection has a strong range of tales, each with gorgeous writing and twisted adventures that will leave you intrigued or terrified, or both. In the end, the collection is less of an escape, and more of a truly unique exploration.

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Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

Highlights:

• Solid writing across a range of stories
• Some abrupt endings
• Mind bending exploration of philosophical and social issues

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.

Microreview [Book]: Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

A dense, twisty and satisfying West African-inspired fantasy with a great magic system

Kingdom of Souls continues the recent run of great West African-inspired fantasy, with a mystery that quickly becomes something greater, driven by the whims of gods and monsters. Its central character is Arrah, a woman who, despite having family with strong magical bloodlines on both sides, has yet to come into her own magical powers - a subject of increasing frustration to her and to her mother, Arti, whose expectations for her daughter are far greater than Arrah has any hope of living up to. After another failed magical ceremony, Arrah returns to the city of Tamar, only to get caught up in a plot in which children are disappearing - what follows is a hunt for answers that quickly brings Arrah and her family into the orbit of the powerful demon king, prevented from being with his now-lost Orisha lover an age ago, and now back for revenge on both the Orisha and humanity as a whole.

Although I had fairly limited assumptions about Kingdom of Souls' plot going in, its a book that covers a lot of ground in a relatively short time, at least once the relatively slow set-up begins to pay off. It takes a while to establish all the relevant pieces in Arrah's world: her mixed tribal heritage, and the traditions of both her mother's Mulani people, and the Aatiri tribe of her father and grandmother; the ceremonies of the tribal lands and Arrah's frustrated participation in them; the different reactions she receives among the Mulani and Aatiri compared to the more diverse and ostensibly less magical circle of friends in Tamar, and her relationship with forbidden love interest Rudjek. On top of that, there's the mixed system of belief and Gods - the Mulani worship only Heka, the God who brought magic to humans, while others worship a pantheon of twenty Orisha (not to be confused with the "canonical" Orisha of Yoruba myth - these are entirely Barron's creation), and a whole set of legends around the Demon King and his desire for human souls. Putting all of this together, setting the wheels in motion for the kidnapped children plot, and setting up the decision whereby Arrah decides to become a "charlatan" - someone without inherent magic who trades years of their life in order to cast spells - takes around a third of the book. It's an impressive amount of set-up and my suspicions that it was being done for a series rather than a book were proved correct when the ending resolved some, but far from all, the plot threads that get built up from this start.

Once the plot gets going, its done in a way that pulls the rug out from reader expectations more than once. For one thing, the inciting incident of the missing children gets an answer much sooner than expected, although its a gut punch of a reveal. From there the story twists into something quite different, which is difficult to describe without spoilers but much more than I expected on the relationship between Arrah and her mother Arti, and the trauma that her mother suffered which contributed to the choices she made for Arrah and for her entire family's future, as well as involving the demons and Orisha mentioned above. It makes for a story that offers a much broader perspective than the average first person teenage protagonist fronted story (although Kingdom of Souls is definitely in "crossover" rather than firm "YA" territory), forcing Arrah to look beyond what she wants (acceptance, to be with her love interest, not having the world destroyed by soul-sucking demons, making sure all her loved ones are OK) to the motivations and desires and difficulties of other people - be they humans or... well, soul-sucking demons. Despite that, it definitely doesn't let anyone off the hook for their terrible choices, and trust me there's some terrible choices happening here.

There were definitely elements of this that I liked more than others - despite the necessity of the set-up, the first third of the book dragged for me, and I also didn't have much time for the doomed love affair between Rudjek and Arrah, due to their parents' rivalry and other magical factors that become clear later on - perhaps because I wasn't paying enough attention during the parts of the book this was initially set up, I just didn't have a whole lot of time for their particular brand of relationship within a novel that already had plenty of nuanced, engaging, non-romantic relationship stuff going on. Rudjek also felt upstaged by Arrah's magical friend Sukar, who I felt I could have spent much more time with.

All in all, this debut kickstarts a series which has some serious potential, both in terms of worldbuilding and direction, and while this first volume has a lot of work to do in putting it all together, it pulls it off in an inventive way which mostly maintains the pace that a story of this urgency needs. Worth digging into, especially for those looking for an interesting take on magic, love and coming-of-age in a very well-realised fantasy world.

The Math

Baseline Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 A twisty plot which doesn't go in the expected directions

Penalties: -1 Lots of worldbuilding to get through makes for a slow start

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

POSTED BY: Adri, Nerds of a Feather co-editor, is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy.

Reference: Barron, Rena. Kingdom of Souls (Harper Voyager, 2019)